Limit search by channel on the form rather than the results template

Question

I'd like to use the same results template for all of my search functions so I'm wondering if it's possible to limit the search to a specific channel i.e. news or calendar in the form rather than in the results template.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You'd do it just like querying for any other element in Craft. i.e.

{% set results = craft.entries({
    search: query,
    section: 'news'
}) %}

Answer 2

Totally possible. Easy way to do it, is to add a hidden input field to the form for whatever section you want to search – the input field can be named anything, e.g. s:

<form action="{{ url('search/results') }}">
    <input type="search" name="q" placeholder="Search">
    <input type="hidden" name="s" value="vegetables"/>

    <input type="submit" value="Go">
</form>

The above would add an additional GET variable to the search request, named s. Just like with the q parameter, you can use craft.request to pick up that parameter's value in your search results template, and add it to the the ElementCriteriaModel (i.e. craft.entries, in this case):

{% set query = craft.request.getParam('q') %}
{% set section = craft.request.getParam('s')|default('news') %}
{% set entries = craft.entries.section(section).search(query).order('score') %}
...

Note that it's wise to use the |default filter to add a default value to the section variable, in case the s GET parameter is missing or empty, for some reason – if you don't pass a section handle to the ECM, Craft searches all sections, which is probably not what you want.

Further: If you wanted to search multiple sections, you could do something like this:

<form action="{{ url('search/results') }}">
    <input type="hidden" name="s[]" value="vegetables"/>
    <input type="hidden" name="s[]" value="fruits"/>
    <input type="hidden" name="s[]" value="berries"/>
    <input type="submit" value="Go">
</form>

...and if you wanted to give the user control over which sections to search, you could opt for an input type other than hidden, e.g. checkboxes:

<input type="checkbox" name="s[]" value="vegetables"/>Vegetables
<input type="checkbox" name="s[]" value="fruits"/>Fruits
<input type="checkbox" name="s[]" value="berries"/>Berries

And finally, the same strategy would, of course, work fine for any other parameter/field value you can pass to an ElementCriteriaModel. You could, for instance, add a dropdown field enabling the user to filter search results by author:

<form action="{{ url('search/results') }}">
    <input type="search" name="q" placeholder="Search">
    <select name="a">
        <option value="">All authors</option>
        <option value="3">Julia</option>
        <option value="53">Gary</option>
        <option value="13">Susie</option>
    </select>
    <input type="submit" value="Go">
</form>

In this case, it'd probably make sense to default to null, which would give you results for all authors:

{% set query = craft.request.getParam('q') %}
{% set authorId = craft.request.getParam('a')|default(null) %}
{% set entries = craft.entries.authorId(author).search(query).order('score') %}
...